


Bookends

by glim



Category: Merlin (BBC) RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-08
Updated: 2010-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-11 00:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glim/pseuds/glim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colin discovers Bradley's secret book collection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bookends

Colin doesn't hear the footsteps or the sound of Bradley's voice, doesn't even notice Bradley's come into the room until he turns around to see him standing there in the doorway.

"Dinner's nearly ready. I guess you haven't unpacked your things yet."

Colin stands up from where he's kneeling by the open packing box and dusts his hands off on his jeans. He's already sweating, having neglected to pull off his coat and scarf despite having arrived at Bradley's flat more than twenty minutes ago, and a hot, tickly feeling prickles at the back of his neck and the small of his back.

"Right. Sorry, I was just…" He looks down at the box, almost guiltily, though Bradley can't have expected that he wouldn't notice, not with how Colin would be sleeping in here tonight, too. "Did you bring that up from your mum's last weekend?"

A slant of late winter-afternoon sunlight falls across Bradley's face. He squints, steps forward, and glances at the box, then at Colin, who's sweating a little more now that the room's gone strangely warm, all fading sunlight and stretching silence.

"Oh. You know. She's currently in _renovation mode_. Which means getting rid of the extraneous things her son's been collecting over the years." Bradley shrugs, like it's nothing, when it's something, because that odd, uncertain look is on his face. The one he gets when somebody compliments him and he doesn't know what to do with those words. "Anyway. Dinner, Colin. I made disgusting green things for you."

"Won't be a minute." He waves at his still-buttoned coat. "Don't do any of the washing up before we eat. I'll do it all after in exchange for edible food."

Bradley smiles and shakes his head, runs a hand through his hair, squints again when he turns back, half-way through the bedroom doorway, smoothing and rumpling his hair up all over again.

"I didn't think I'd miss them."

Colin replies with a nod and busies himself with more coat-unbuttoning and scarf-unwinding. Only when Bradley's gone does he kneel back down, fingers skimming over the spines of picture books and mystery novels, creased paperbacks that look like tie-ins to favorite movies and sturdy, heavy, illustrated classics for young readers. He's still for a moment, watching another part of his boyfriend's past unfold, then jumps up when Bradley shouts something about _potentially COLD green things for dinner, COLIN_.


End file.
